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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24144922">minor contemplations on the meaning of love and loss; featuring a crab and a manta ray</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Texeoghea/pseuds/Texeoghea'>Texeoghea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers: Beast Wars</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Animal Death, Beaches, Body Exploration, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, Minor Violence, the tags make it seem worse than it really is</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 18:40:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,375</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24144922</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Texeoghea/pseuds/Texeoghea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was about a year since the maximals had left prehistoric earth, leaving Depth Charge and Rampage behind- and Waspinator, but they’d come to an agreement to just ignore his existence- and things were, actually, pretty good.<br/>Sure, Depth Charge and Rampage had fought. It was what they were best at. But between fighting, there was talking. And then agreements. And, slowly, they came to an understanding of each other.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Depth Charge/Rampage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>minor contemplations on the meaning of love and loss; featuring a crab and a manta ray</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello beast wars fandom, if you've seen those posts on tumblr about Rampage talking about DC's huge tits, that was probably me. I'm not sorry for my current contributions, but here, have this as consolation</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was about a year since the maximals had left prehistoric earth, leaving Depth Charge and Rampage behind- and Waspinator, but they’d come to an agreement to just ignore his existence- and things were, actually, pretty good.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sure, Depth Charge and Rampage had fought. It was what they were best at. But between fighting, there was talking. And then agreements. And, slowly, they came to an understanding of each other. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Depth Charge had been reluctant at first, of course, but after Rampage rekindled his dying spark, he found he didn’t have much of a choice. If Rampage wouldn’t let him die, well, he wasn’t about to spend eternity suffering. Sometimes, that meant making deals with people you hate.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>But that had been a year ago.</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>Depth Charge found Rampage on the beach, sitting in a hole he’d dug. Depth Charge honestly couldn’t recall if it was the same hole as the one he’d dug immediately upon arriving on the island, because the beach looked the same to him on all sides, but if Rampage wanted to dig holes every 20 feet on this little patch of land, he was welcome to. Depth Charge hated the sand.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hey, fins,” Rampage greeted easily. Waves of calm washed over Depth Charge as he approached.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(At least, he thought they meant “calm.” Rampage had a hard enough time understanding how his powers worked when he’d had them his whole life, Depth Charge wasn’t sure why he even bothered making an attempt to explain after Rampage passed on his “abilities” when he saved his life.)</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Hello,” Depth Charge said in return, walking past him. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Going for another swim, then?” Rampage asked, his voice teasing. Depth Charge flicked his tail. “Better than grinding sand into places that have never seen the sun,” he muttered in reply, stepping into the cool water.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The ocean’s full of sand, too, fishie,” Rampage called after him, “literally full of it. You aren’t escaping it!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Depth Charge was already underwater.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Transforming into beast mode, he sailed lazily over the sandbanks, heading into deeper waters. The speckled sunlight shone through the calm surface of the sea, currents washing over him as he swam. Tranquility was something he thought he’d never experience again, but he was finding it everywhere. The ocean, the land, the sky… the planet was alive with simple beauty.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They had found an island near a coral reef, which Depth Charge enjoyed visiting. He dared not venture into it, for fear of destroying it on accident, but he swam lazy circles around it and watched the creatures within. Bustling with so much activity, it almost looked like Iacon. A few stray fish saw him and scattered, spewing the sharp scent of fear into the water. If Depth Charge had a nose, he would have wrinkled it. Fear left a horrid taste in his mouth.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Swimming away from the reef, he began laps around the island instead, when something caught on his wing. In an instant, he flicked himself up, launching out of the water with a spin. Only when he landed did he even register the action, so natural had it felt. “Huh,” he muttered. “That’s a new one.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>New beast modes offered a wide array of new instincts and behaviors, ones that a mech could spend many years learning the ins and outs of. But oh, Depth Charge had<em> liked </em> leaping out of the water like that…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He swam for a few minutes more, then leapt up again, this time adding a flip. A small, giddy laugh escaped him. What fun! He did it again, somersaulting over the waves and crashing back into the water with a tremendous sound. Another laugh joined his own, louder, confident.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Swimming back up to the surface, he found himself in front of Rampage once more. The crab was clapping. “A stunning performance!” He called when he noticed he had Depth Charge’s attention. “How about another?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Depth Charge was momentarily torn between abiding the request, because he’d been having fun, or swimming away out of spite. But Rampage had been behaving for the most part lately, and besides, letting him spoil a new game was hardly something Depth Charge was willing to do. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Diving back down, Depth Charge caught just a taste of disappointment from Rampage. Then, he was rocketing back towards the surface, launching out of the water with a showy spin, diving headfirst back into the water. Rampage gave a garbled sound of excitement, but Depth Charge was far from done. Twisting this time as he surfaced, the water spun with him, like a little tornado.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Incredible, my friend!” Rampage cheered. Despite himself, Depth Charge felt his spark spin a little faster at the words. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“And for my next trick,” he said quietly to himself, diving deeper. He laid on the sand for just a moment, then, like a bullet, shot back upwards. He arced higher this time, soaring through the air. For a moment, he wanted to transform to sky mode, keeping momentum, sailing away-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Pain! </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Crashing back into the water with a startled sound, Depth Charge flailed for a moment before he saw what had happened. A bird was floating on the surface, stunned by the impact. Shock and pain washed off of it. Its spine appeared to be broken.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Depth Charge had collided head first with the thing. It would die soon, of shock or by drowning.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mood ruined, he switched to root mode, holding the bird gently as he swam back to the beach, where Rampage was cackling madly. The crab was on his back, gasping for breath between howls. His euphoric amusement was almost contagious. “Oh,” he giggled, “Oh, what a finale, truly inspirational!” the rest of his words were lost to his laughter.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Move over,” Depth Charge snapped. Rampage scooted to one side of his hole, still cackling. Depth Charge folded his wings inwards, sliding down into the sand with a huff. Rampage flopped forwards into his lap, snickering. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This bird is going to die,” Depth Charge said. Rampage stopped laughing, noticing the feathered thing for the first time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Animals die. It’s what they do.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Depth Charge shook his head. “It’s going to die because of <em> me. </em>”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rampage twisted to look at him. “It won’t be the first thing to do so, or the last.” He held up a hand against Depth Charge’s anger. “Remorse won’t save it, and neither will fury. Things die, my friend.” He looked down at the broken little thing. “Better to put it out of its misery now, than let it suffer until it perishes.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A year ago, Depth Charge would have tried to kill Rampage for saying that, just to blow off some steam.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Instead he sighed, stroking the dying bird carefully. “Yeah.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rampage watched him for a moment. The air tasted of things Depth Charge couldn’t name.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I can do it,” Rampage offered. “If you don’t want to.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The bird twitched in Depth Charge’s hand.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“It’s my fault. I’ll do it,” Depth Charge responded.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He stood, climbing out of the hole, careful not to drop the little animal. Rampage followed him as he walked away from the beach, until the sand turned to dirt beneath his peds, and grass and ferns softened the land. The little animal seized up, agony wafting off of it. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Sorry,” Depth Charge said. For a moment, he thought it looked at him.</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>Rampage was silent until Depth Charge was done, and they were back on the beach, staring at the sky as the sun slowly began to set. “Do you want to go back to the cave?” He asked.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“No,” Depth Charge said. “I want to watch the sun.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Rampage nodded.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their hands met on the sand, slowly entwining. They pretended not to notice.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Rampage said. “About the bird.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Things die,” Depth Charge replied. “It’s what they do.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The sun began to slide behind the horizon. One of them squeezed the other’s hand, gently, and the other squeezed back. The sky turned blue-orange-red-black under their gaze, and stars slowly winked to life as the sun gave its final goodbyes.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If Rampage shifted closer as the warmth left the sand, and if Depth Charge wrapped a wing around him in response, well.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Things love. It’s what they do.</p>
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